The World (2)
Hah, seriously? You're really going to let yourself get eaten like this? Are you joking?
"…Because of me, you've suffered so much."
Damn it! If you do this, your soul will be devoured by that thing too!
"I'm truly… truly sorry—"
Are you even listening to me, you damned human!
"Shut up, trash. I'm apologizing to this person. Don't interrupt."
You insolent little brat……!
Will it be all right?
To someone who asked her that, she had wanted to answer that dying in battle would at least be a glorious end.
But……
"I know. That no death can ever be a glorious one."
Even knowing that Nordah warriors took pride in dying in battle, that was the answer that came out first.
The death the Nordah warriors revered and the death she had come to understand were different things, and that difference would never close in a lifetime.
Even if she lived as a Nordah warrior and died as one.
"A blessed death? There's no such thing in this world."
Death was nothing more than a fancy package for being forgotten.
And being forgotten meant being erased from the world—as if you had never existed from the start.
Her eyelids trembled as she muttered the words bitterly. Kwaang! Her body leapt upward, stepping on the bursting surge of water and the debris tumbling after it.
Flutter.
The thick cloth wrapped around her waist unfurled with a dull billow.
Kyaak!
Thud!
Standing at the crumbling edge of the wall, she viciously kicked the merman that had been about to cut her down. The merman's head crushed slightly under the blow, and the rebound lifted her body into the air.
What her sole found next was the nape of the beast that had been smashing through obstacles as it advanced.
The snake's body, coiling in a spiral around the turtle's neck, was slick and slippery.
Kyaak!
The moment she felt that sliding sensation under her thin shoe sole, she moved her arm.
In a single instant she twisted her grip, her wrist, the angle of her forearm—and her hand swung the spear in a vertical arc.
Slash.
Almost at the same moment her feet touched down, the spinning spear scraped across the snake's hide. Whether it had even scratched the thing was impossible to confirm.
If the flesh didn't split open, a nick or no nick was equally meaningless.
"Hoo."
And right now, she had no choice but to fall back for a beat.
[Where are you going?]
[I'm right here.]
[My little sister.]
The seirens that came winging in from every side made that clear enough. If those things attacked all at once, even she would have a hard time of it.
So while she felt nothing but disgust at the voices piling words on one after another, she still put running along the snake first. Its body was thick enough that one person could run on it with room to spare.
…So you're going to die today?
Around then someone asked her again. Her lips moved.
"Maybe."
That stubborn single sentence was the same one she had been repeating like a parrot since earlier.
She drove the spear tip into a gap between scales and let out a breath.
[Cold, cold. So cold…….]
[Save me. Please save me…….]
The spear blade still failed to deal any real damage to the snake, but her body used the shaft as a prop to lift her legs for a moment. Thud! Her toes cracked into the seiren's wing joints in rapid succession.
Tap.
When her feet found the surface again, she yanked the spear free and swung it hard.
Things struck by the blade and the butt of the shaft fell back, trailing threads of blood.
Boom!
"……!"
Then, with a violent shudder, the giant beast properly breached the wall.
The shell that had been caught spanning two walls simply collapsed everything that had been pinching it and kept advancing with pure, stupid force.
Her hand, nearly thrown free, shot out to grab the snake's body. It was far too slick, so she used the seiren that was lunging for her instead.
She struck the approaching creature's throat, stepped on its torso, and leapt—her hand closing on the turtle's hide.
Seaweed, coral, every kind of shell had grown across the hide the snake was wrapped around; there were more than enough things that could serve as handholds.
Whooosh!
Suddenly, far below her, seawater came pouring in with a cool rush. The amount that entered with each wave through the structure was not large.
Gurgle.
But the real problem was never the volume of water. It was what came in with it.
The legless mermen—those that had been swept in by force on the first current—were flopping and trying to return to the sea, while the legged ones strode forward, smeared with mud.
Thud, thud, thud.
And through all of it the beast had no intention of stopping. Slow as it was, its sheer bulk made it faster than a human's ordinary walk—which was thoroughly inconvenient.
At this rate the fleeing soldiers might still be overtaken.
She stabbed another seiren that came close and flicked a glance downward. There was still some distance for now, but the soldiers remained within her sight.
Some were slow to run; others had orders to help the citizens evacuate. That was why.
"…I'll have to aim for the head."
So there was no other way. She decided to go for the head—the weak point of most living things.
Blades would not even sink into the mass of the body itself, so targeting the mouth, where the flesh was relatively soft, was the better gamble. It was a judgment that still held a little calculation.
And for that, she had to climb.
Grateful that the snake's spiral was offering her a path, she sprinted upward.
Kyaaaaah!
The snake let out a long cry. It seemed to have noticed the uninvited guest scaling its own body.
The snake's trunk began to sway and thrash.
Tak!
"—!"
Somehow she managed to keep hold of the moss and seaweed and avoid a fall… but the spear she had been carrying dropped instead.
Her brows drew tight.
All she had left to use now were her two bare hands.
I should be the one asking that! Do you not care if your soul is never saved for all eternity?!
"Hah—are you asking me that? You? Of all people, you—!!!"
Hand over control, brat!
"Get lost! A life that was never going to be saved anyway—if I can drag you down into the abyss with me, what can't I do?! Never, never will I let you walk away alive—!"
"Evacuate first!"
"Damn it—I'll catch up soon, so stay alive!"
After leaving those words behind, the Inquisitor rode the Demon Knight's horse hard. Perhaps because it wanted to go to its master.
The same animal that usually whipped its head away the moment she tried to approach in secret was strangely cooperative today. Wind poured over its lowered body as the streets—gradually emptying as people fled—raced past.
"Aaaaaaah!!"
"Heeeeeng!!"
Kyarrrrk!
And from a certain point onward, demons began to appear.
The first was a lion's head, a bear's paws, a bull's body covered in shell. A Tarrasque. A subspecies of dragon, and a high-ranking demon that properly belonged on the northern front.
"Halt!!"
Why a Tarrasque had appeared so suddenly—she was still weighing whether it had anything to do with the surging demon energy when the next screams cut the thought short.
What she needed to care about right now were the people being attacked by the Tarrasque. With countless corpses already crushed beneath its feet, her hand raised the mace.
Kyaaaaaak!
"Heup!"
The demon that had been about to strike the people slammed into her golden barrier and stopped cold; the Inquisitor kept charging at full speed.
If the horse had frozen in terror it would have been a disaster—but the Demon Knight's horse, as if taking after its master, was utterly fearless. Fortunate.
Geugeuk!
It even turned its ankle at just the right moment so she could hit the Tarrasque cleanly.
The Inquisitor widened her eyes and swung. The instant the golden barrier dropped, the mace smashed into the Tarrasque's lion head that had been pressing its face against the wall of light.
Kwak!
Under that crushing force the Tarrasque went flying with a caved-in skull. Of course, because she had held back a little holy power to conserve strength, it did not die in a single blow.
Like someone reeling from a concussion, the Tarrasque staggered back to its feet.
"Go!"
Purrrk.
She could not waste the opening. She spurred the horse closer, then leapt off the moment the animal swung sideways at the perfect timing.
Bang!
Both hands on the mace, she brought it down and crushed the Tarrasque's head flat. Purrrk. The horse that had halted a little to the side tossed its head with a proud snort.
"He… heaa……"
"Are you hurt!"
How many had already died to this Tarrasque. She offered a silent prayer and her condolences to the dead, then hurried to the living.
A young brother and sister, and a mother and daughter who seemed to be a separate party. Only these four.
"I'll treat you—then run immediately! Stick close to the buildings as you go so the demons are less likely to notice you."
After mending only the most urgent wounds, she added that they should abandon their luggage and lighten themselves, then swung back into the saddle.
The intelligent horse understood the place was dangerous and refused to leave her side for even a moment—except during combat.
"Go!"
If this horse were hurt, the Demon Knight would grieve.
She decided she would send it back once she reached a certain point. She was a little worried about it returning alone, but that was still far better than dragging it into that inferno with her.
Just in case, she should at least lay a blessing on it, but—
Krrrk.
Puhing.
"Demon—huk!"
…Perhaps a blessing would not even be necessary.
She was in the middle of cutting down the skeletons that had suddenly burst out when she saw the horse smash another demon with a clean hind kick, and could not help a flash of admiration.
She did not want idle thoughts even now, yet it truly seemed the Demon Knight had brought a horse just like himself.
That thought did not last long.
"Uuaaaa!"
"I'm going!"
Screams rose from every other block. No—they grew fewer and fewer. Only corpses remained in abundance.
"Dullahan!"
But what was this. After the Tarrasque, discovering a Dullahan as well filled her with a deep unease.
Neither Tarrasque nor Dullahan was a demon one ever saw lightly.
A Tarrasque required hundreds of sacrifices to summon, and a Dullahan needed the corpse of a knight who had died on the battlefield with his head struck off—the cause of death had to be exactly that—for its birth.
So even if the demon contractors behind this had prepared thoroughly, releasing both at once should still have been a strain……
Kwaang!
She took the Dullahan's swordplay—polished, as expected of something built from a knight's corpse—entirely on her shield. The moment its flurry ended, she slammed it with holy power.
She needed to conserve strength, but a Dullahan was the kind of enemy that dragged on forever if you fought it carefully. Time was gold right now; she had to judge correctly.
Kwajik!
The Inquisitor's mace shattered the Dullahan's frozen heart.
Kkiik, kkik!
And in the middle of all that, even gremlins appeared.
She ground her teeth at the lower demons that resembled goblins. Right now a high-ranking demon was actually preferable. Those came one at a time; she could handle them alone.
But lower ones that were just strong enough that ordinary people could not manage them, and that came in numbers……
"Th-thank you."
"Go!"
If even one slipped past, that man—and the horse—would be in danger.
Putting aside her questions about where so many demons were pouring from after the appearance of two high-ranking ones, the Inquisitor shouted:
"Take this horse with you as well! It belongs to a knight—hand it over to someone who works at the temple or the castle! You must hand it over!"
"Y-y-yes!"
Would the citizen actually return a horse that looked so magnificent and valuable? She hesitated, then quickly committed the man's face to memory.
Gray hair, blue eyes. Whether she would be able to keep that memory through every disaster still to come was anyone's guess.
"You run with him too. Thank you for everything up to here."
Purrk.
Still, the animal was clever; that brought a little relief.
She poured out holy power toward the horse that usually ignored her yet understood conversation perfectly in moments like this. A golden barrier rose and held the gremlins back.
"Uaaaaaaa!"
In that interval the horse took off with the citizen on its back. Uwaaaaa. The pitiful scream of someone who had never learned to ride and was now starting straight from a gallop rang through the alley.
That would only draw the demons' eyes. She could not quite bring herself to shout the warning.
She sheathed the mace and advanced steadily, smashing gremlin skulls with swings of her shield.
Screams no longer came; it seemed there were no survivors left.
"……!"
Instead the air began to change. Hot breath forced its way into her lungs, and a searing heat gently scraped her skin—that kind of air.
The fire giant that had looked so distant was now right in front of her.
"Demon Knight……"
Where was the one who had gone to stop it? Could he be lying somewhere in there, like all the others……
Kuak!
Kang!
She reflexively swung her shield at the grotesque monster that came pouring out of a narrow gap. Long-trained reflexes had already judged the opponent as something formless.
And formless things often slipped in along the edge of a shield. She must never simply block.
Squelch!
"Mimic!"
She hastily drew the mace and prepared to answer.
Mimics that nestled in containers or narrow crevices and swallowed anything that came close were among the more troublesome demons to face.
After all, a Mimic was a subspecies of Slime. If you did not want to experience everything except metal melting on contact, you had to avoid touch entirely and destroy the core.
Occasionally—very rarely—the absolute worst ones melted metal as well.
"Hoo."
Should she force this one with holy power too? But she had already spent far too much power just getting here. And the demon energy in that place had not lessened by even a fraction!
She gritted her teeth against the heat rising through her body again.
Should she go forward, or stop here and simply kill whatever demons came out? Could she even handle that place alone in the first place?
A weight far too heavy for one person to decide alone—yet one she alone had to decide—pressed down on her shoulders.
If only the Archmage were here. Or at least the Demon Knight, who erased every choice simply by charging ahead. Or even that slick talker who lightened her burden by discussing things with her.
The Inquisitor's lips clamped shut.
And the demon called to her. The Mimic stopped the moment the question came, and showed no further intent to attack.
Truly, it was a demon's whisper.
…Is someone there?
"……!"
……!